Left my Heart in Princeton by Cedar (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
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Feb. 5th, 2008 12:55 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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numb3rsflashficTitle: Left my Heart in Princeton
Pairing/Characters: Charlie Eppes, Marshall Penfield, Lawrence Kutner
Rating/Category: PG-13 for salty language/Gen (humor, crack)
Word Count: 1461
Spoilers: None for S4 of Numb3rs
Summary: On a trip to Princeton, Charlie is introduced to an old friend of Marshall Penfield's.
Notes/Warnings: I found this crossover challenge irresistible and I probably went a little overboard, because I've always referred to Numb3rs as "Six Degrees of David Krumholtz." Here's the crossover writeup: David Krumholtz was in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, which takes place in Princeton, Hoboken, New Brunswick, and Cherry Hill, NJ. Kal Penn, who starred with Krumholtz in Harold & Kumar, now has a role on House, M.D., which is set in Princeton. Several scenes from Harold & Kumar are referenced in the fic. Harold & Kumar has another connection to Numb3rs, too: Neil Patrick Harris has appeared in both. When Marshall Penfield tells the ER horror story, he is referencing the episodes "Be Still my Heart" and "All in the Family" of NBC's ER, where Krumholtz played a psych patient who stabbed a doctor to death. The movie Don and Alan are watching at the end of the fic is Quiz Show, in which Rob Morrow played a character with a thick Boston accent. Mira Sorvino has a degree in here, too: She had roles in both Quiz Show and House.
Left my Heart in Princeton
Charlie had forgotten how much he loved New Jersey in the fall. California had three seasons: fire, rain, and earthquake, and the leaves on the trees there never changed color. As he drove his rented car south on the Turnpike from Newark Airport, he took in miles of red and yellow trees. The air coming through the car windows was cool and sharp and he hit occasional patches of road that smelled of burning wood.
Princeton looked the same as it had when he'd last been there three years ago. Not that he had expected hundred-year-old buildings to change much, but there was still the tense air of excitement in the lecture hall when he entered it the day after arriving in New Jersey. He was glad he had some down time from the FBI and was able to accept the opportunity to speak in Princeton's Millennium Prize Problems lecture series. He hadn't wanted to speak about P vs. NP, given the trouble it had brought to him and his relationship with Don, but the Princeton faculty was interested in both his work on P vs. NP and his work with the FBI on solving the Emily Burdick kidnapping case. The lecture went well and the attendees asked interesting questions at the end.
Charlie was kneeling under the lectern, unplugging his laptop, when he heard a voice above his head.
"If you're going to name a variation in the Eppes Convergence after me I can at least take you to lunch."
"Marshall Penfield." Charlie sighed and stood, wrapping the laptop cord around his hand.
"Nice to see you again, Eppes."
"It's..." Charlie stopped himself before he said what he really thought, and smiled briefly. "It's good to see you too." Penfield had made the effort to be civil, even friendly, and Charlie knew he should do the same.
"Are you doing anything now? I'm meeting a friend at a diner up on Route 1 and if you want you can come along." Penfield shifted the messenger bag over his left shoulder and checked his watch.
Technically the answer was no, he wasn't doing anything now, but Charlie wasn't sure if he voluntarily wanted to spend his free time with Penfield. Then again, what else was he going to do? Plus, he was hungry.
"Sure. Yeah. Just let me finish packing up my laptop."
Charlie had never been to the Skylark Diner. When he walked in, he was glad he'd let Penfield offer to buy him lunch. The place looked like something out of a Jetsons cartoon and the menu was incredible.
"My friend's late," said Penfield apologetically as Charlie closed his menu. "He's probably going to be late to his own funeral. But you'll like him."
"Hey, Penfield! Sorry I'm late."
"Speak of the devil."
Charlie looked up as a man about his age, Indian or maybe Sri Lankan, slid into the booth next to Penfield.
"It's okay, man. Glad you could make it," said Penfield. He put a menu in front of his friend. "Eppes, this is my friend Dr. Lawrence Kutner. He was at Princeton with us. Kutner, this is Charlie Eppes. He's also a mathematician. He's here doing a guest lecture on unsolvable math problems."
The reminder of his days at Princeton, that he might be introduced to someone who remembered him as a gawky teenager, made Charlie squirm. "Nice to meet you, Dr. Lawrence Kutner," he said, extending his hand.
Dr. Kutner smiled. "Just Kutner," he said, taking Charlie's hand. "Lawrence is a town in Kansas."
The waitress came to take their drink orders and Charlie resumed their conversation when she left.
"Kutner. Right. Of course. Look, I'm sorry, I…I don't remember you from Princeton," Charlie admitted. "You weren't in the math program, were you?" He felt himself redden. It was embarrassing not to remember colleagues and he didn't think his memory was so poor that he'd have forgotten anyone he went to school with.
"Penfield and I met in a required English class. You weren't in it."
"Oh!" Charlie felt a little better. He shifted in his seat. "But you went on for a PhD?"
"An MD, actually." Kutner smiled as the waitress delivered their drink orders. "I'm an aspiring diagnostician. Currently working for the best and the brightest jackass in the business, Dr. Gregory House of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. And praying he doesn't fire me."
Opening a sugar packet for his coffee once the waitress left them, Charlie said, "But…I mean, that sounds like a great opportunity. Close to home. And that's an outstanding hospital. Even though I hate hospitals."
Penfield nodded in agreement. "It's the smell. And you hear so many horror stories, especially about ERs. I mean, I heard this story once about an undiagnosed schizophrenic who stabbed a doctor to death. I think it was in Chicago." He shuddered. "They shouldn't put that shit on TV, man. Scares people out of going to the hospital."
"See, people like you," Kutner said to Penfield, pointing with his spoon, "are going to put me out of a job."
"House is going to put you out of a job, not me," replied Penfield. "Or. You know. An undiagnosed schizophrenic with a knife."
"Oh, thanks." Kutner rolled his eyes.
Their food arrived not long after that. Charlie had forgotten how damn good toast was at New Jersey diners. There was just something about the melted butter.
"Eppes, I don't think what you're doing to that toast is legal." Penfield's voice broke into Charlie's whole-wheat thoughts.
"There's something very comforting about being in a place where they serve breakfast twenty-four hours a day," Charlie replied as he swirled the toast around in his egg yolks.
Kutner smiled. "You know, that's true. Breakfast and White Castle are all you really need to be truly comforted."
"Ohhhh, White Castle," Penfield moaned. "That's some good shit. But you can only eat it if you're stoned."
With a nod of agreement, Kutner added, "But when you are stoned, man, there is nothing better. Those burgers…they're like Katie Holmes's tits in that movie with Keanu Reeves. Perfection. You know, I once drove all the way to Cherry Hill from Hoboken for White Castle when I was stoned and had the munchies. Longest night of my life."
Katie Holmes's tits. Charlie looked down at his plate to avoid showing his certain look of disgust to Kutner. Granted, they were nice tits, but they were just about the last thing he wanted to discuss right now.
Lunch came to an end not long afterward. Penfield and Kutner discussed some people Charlie didn't know and he smiled and nodded accordingly.
"Thank you," Charlie said to Penfield as he paid the tab.
"You're welcome."
Back in the car, Penfield asked, "So what are you up to the rest of your stay here?"
"Not a lot." Charlie gazed out the window onto the construction that perpetually made Route 1 a mess. "I'm just here for a day or so, though. I've got classes to teach back at CalSci. You know how it is."
"Yeah. Listen, question for you. You know that combinatorics professor you work with? The hot one? Amita?"
"Um…yeah?" Charlie felt ready to push Penfield out of the car. He knew what was coming.
"Is she--"
"She's spoken for. By me, in fact."
"You? Damn, Eppes." Penfield exhaled. "Um, good job."
"Yeah. I think so."
If you're smart, Penfield, Charlie thought, you'll shut up right now before I carjack you and leave you on the side of the road.
Penfield dropped Charlie off at his hotel. "Keep in touch, Eppes. Come back here sometime."
Charlie had no doubt that he'd be back at Princeton eventually, but he wasn't enthusiastic about the idea of seeing Penfield again anytime soon.
As beautiful as the leaves and the weather were, Charlie was grateful to get back to LA the next day. When he got to the house he found Alan and Don watching a movie.
"Hey, guys."
"Hey, Charlie." Alan paused the DVD player. "There's leftovers from dinner if you want, and I made some popcorn."
"Popcorn sounds great," Charlie answered, dropping his carryon bag in the hall. "What are you watching?"
Don held up the bowl. Charlie reached into it as Alan said, "It's about the game show scandals of the 1950s. I remember when it was in the papers. Except this one guy in the movie with the Boston accent...I can barely understand a word coming out of his mouth."
Frowning at Alan, Don replied, "Dad, you should get your hearing checked. He sounds fine."
"Okay, fine. Can we watch the movie now?"
Charlie smiled and shook his head. Maybe he hadn't missed Princeton as much as he thought.
--
end
Sarah McLachlan - Black & White
Pairing/Characters: Charlie Eppes, Marshall Penfield, Lawrence Kutner
Rating/Category: PG-13 for salty language/Gen (humor, crack)
Word Count: 1461
Spoilers: None for S4 of Numb3rs
Summary: On a trip to Princeton, Charlie is introduced to an old friend of Marshall Penfield's.
Notes/Warnings: I found this crossover challenge irresistible and I probably went a little overboard, because I've always referred to Numb3rs as "Six Degrees of David Krumholtz." Here's the crossover writeup: David Krumholtz was in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, which takes place in Princeton, Hoboken, New Brunswick, and Cherry Hill, NJ. Kal Penn, who starred with Krumholtz in Harold & Kumar, now has a role on House, M.D., which is set in Princeton. Several scenes from Harold & Kumar are referenced in the fic. Harold & Kumar has another connection to Numb3rs, too: Neil Patrick Harris has appeared in both. When Marshall Penfield tells the ER horror story, he is referencing the episodes "Be Still my Heart" and "All in the Family" of NBC's ER, where Krumholtz played a psych patient who stabbed a doctor to death. The movie Don and Alan are watching at the end of the fic is Quiz Show, in which Rob Morrow played a character with a thick Boston accent. Mira Sorvino has a degree in here, too: She had roles in both Quiz Show and House.
Charlie had forgotten how much he loved New Jersey in the fall. California had three seasons: fire, rain, and earthquake, and the leaves on the trees there never changed color. As he drove his rented car south on the Turnpike from Newark Airport, he took in miles of red and yellow trees. The air coming through the car windows was cool and sharp and he hit occasional patches of road that smelled of burning wood.
Princeton looked the same as it had when he'd last been there three years ago. Not that he had expected hundred-year-old buildings to change much, but there was still the tense air of excitement in the lecture hall when he entered it the day after arriving in New Jersey. He was glad he had some down time from the FBI and was able to accept the opportunity to speak in Princeton's Millennium Prize Problems lecture series. He hadn't wanted to speak about P vs. NP, given the trouble it had brought to him and his relationship with Don, but the Princeton faculty was interested in both his work on P vs. NP and his work with the FBI on solving the Emily Burdick kidnapping case. The lecture went well and the attendees asked interesting questions at the end.
Charlie was kneeling under the lectern, unplugging his laptop, when he heard a voice above his head.
"If you're going to name a variation in the Eppes Convergence after me I can at least take you to lunch."
"Marshall Penfield." Charlie sighed and stood, wrapping the laptop cord around his hand.
"Nice to see you again, Eppes."
"It's..." Charlie stopped himself before he said what he really thought, and smiled briefly. "It's good to see you too." Penfield had made the effort to be civil, even friendly, and Charlie knew he should do the same.
"Are you doing anything now? I'm meeting a friend at a diner up on Route 1 and if you want you can come along." Penfield shifted the messenger bag over his left shoulder and checked his watch.
Technically the answer was no, he wasn't doing anything now, but Charlie wasn't sure if he voluntarily wanted to spend his free time with Penfield. Then again, what else was he going to do? Plus, he was hungry.
"Sure. Yeah. Just let me finish packing up my laptop."
Charlie had never been to the Skylark Diner. When he walked in, he was glad he'd let Penfield offer to buy him lunch. The place looked like something out of a Jetsons cartoon and the menu was incredible.
"My friend's late," said Penfield apologetically as Charlie closed his menu. "He's probably going to be late to his own funeral. But you'll like him."
"Hey, Penfield! Sorry I'm late."
"Speak of the devil."
Charlie looked up as a man about his age, Indian or maybe Sri Lankan, slid into the booth next to Penfield.
"It's okay, man. Glad you could make it," said Penfield. He put a menu in front of his friend. "Eppes, this is my friend Dr. Lawrence Kutner. He was at Princeton with us. Kutner, this is Charlie Eppes. He's also a mathematician. He's here doing a guest lecture on unsolvable math problems."
The reminder of his days at Princeton, that he might be introduced to someone who remembered him as a gawky teenager, made Charlie squirm. "Nice to meet you, Dr. Lawrence Kutner," he said, extending his hand.
Dr. Kutner smiled. "Just Kutner," he said, taking Charlie's hand. "Lawrence is a town in Kansas."
The waitress came to take their drink orders and Charlie resumed their conversation when she left.
"Kutner. Right. Of course. Look, I'm sorry, I…I don't remember you from Princeton," Charlie admitted. "You weren't in the math program, were you?" He felt himself redden. It was embarrassing not to remember colleagues and he didn't think his memory was so poor that he'd have forgotten anyone he went to school with.
"Penfield and I met in a required English class. You weren't in it."
"Oh!" Charlie felt a little better. He shifted in his seat. "But you went on for a PhD?"
"An MD, actually." Kutner smiled as the waitress delivered their drink orders. "I'm an aspiring diagnostician. Currently working for the best and the brightest jackass in the business, Dr. Gregory House of Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. And praying he doesn't fire me."
Opening a sugar packet for his coffee once the waitress left them, Charlie said, "But…I mean, that sounds like a great opportunity. Close to home. And that's an outstanding hospital. Even though I hate hospitals."
Penfield nodded in agreement. "It's the smell. And you hear so many horror stories, especially about ERs. I mean, I heard this story once about an undiagnosed schizophrenic who stabbed a doctor to death. I think it was in Chicago." He shuddered. "They shouldn't put that shit on TV, man. Scares people out of going to the hospital."
"See, people like you," Kutner said to Penfield, pointing with his spoon, "are going to put me out of a job."
"House is going to put you out of a job, not me," replied Penfield. "Or. You know. An undiagnosed schizophrenic with a knife."
"Oh, thanks." Kutner rolled his eyes.
Their food arrived not long after that. Charlie had forgotten how damn good toast was at New Jersey diners. There was just something about the melted butter.
"Eppes, I don't think what you're doing to that toast is legal." Penfield's voice broke into Charlie's whole-wheat thoughts.
"There's something very comforting about being in a place where they serve breakfast twenty-four hours a day," Charlie replied as he swirled the toast around in his egg yolks.
Kutner smiled. "You know, that's true. Breakfast and White Castle are all you really need to be truly comforted."
"Ohhhh, White Castle," Penfield moaned. "That's some good shit. But you can only eat it if you're stoned."
With a nod of agreement, Kutner added, "But when you are stoned, man, there is nothing better. Those burgers…they're like Katie Holmes's tits in that movie with Keanu Reeves. Perfection. You know, I once drove all the way to Cherry Hill from Hoboken for White Castle when I was stoned and had the munchies. Longest night of my life."
Katie Holmes's tits. Charlie looked down at his plate to avoid showing his certain look of disgust to Kutner. Granted, they were nice tits, but they were just about the last thing he wanted to discuss right now.
Lunch came to an end not long afterward. Penfield and Kutner discussed some people Charlie didn't know and he smiled and nodded accordingly.
"Thank you," Charlie said to Penfield as he paid the tab.
"You're welcome."
Back in the car, Penfield asked, "So what are you up to the rest of your stay here?"
"Not a lot." Charlie gazed out the window onto the construction that perpetually made Route 1 a mess. "I'm just here for a day or so, though. I've got classes to teach back at CalSci. You know how it is."
"Yeah. Listen, question for you. You know that combinatorics professor you work with? The hot one? Amita?"
"Um…yeah?" Charlie felt ready to push Penfield out of the car. He knew what was coming.
"Is she--"
"She's spoken for. By me, in fact."
"You? Damn, Eppes." Penfield exhaled. "Um, good job."
"Yeah. I think so."
If you're smart, Penfield, Charlie thought, you'll shut up right now before I carjack you and leave you on the side of the road.
Penfield dropped Charlie off at his hotel. "Keep in touch, Eppes. Come back here sometime."
Charlie had no doubt that he'd be back at Princeton eventually, but he wasn't enthusiastic about the idea of seeing Penfield again anytime soon.
As beautiful as the leaves and the weather were, Charlie was grateful to get back to LA the next day. When he got to the house he found Alan and Don watching a movie.
"Hey, guys."
"Hey, Charlie." Alan paused the DVD player. "There's leftovers from dinner if you want, and I made some popcorn."
"Popcorn sounds great," Charlie answered, dropping his carryon bag in the hall. "What are you watching?"
Don held up the bowl. Charlie reached into it as Alan said, "It's about the game show scandals of the 1950s. I remember when it was in the papers. Except this one guy in the movie with the Boston accent...I can barely understand a word coming out of his mouth."
Frowning at Alan, Don replied, "Dad, you should get your hearing checked. He sounds fine."
"Okay, fine. Can we watch the movie now?"
Charlie smiled and shook his head. Maybe he hadn't missed Princeton as much as he thought.
--
end
Sarah McLachlan - Black & White
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